Business News

Dunnes Stores has completed a major corporate restructuring process by assimilating 40 individual companies into a principal entity within the group via a merger process.

The move comes just months after it became apparent that the secretive retailer has been undergoing significant change as matriarch Margaret Heffernan (who turns 76 tomorrow) increasingly cedes control of the family business to her daughter, Anne. The business is also run by Margaret Heffernan’s brother, Frank Dunne (74).

Anne Heffernan (49) and Margaret Heffernan’s niece, Sharon McMahon (47), were both appointed directors of all Dunnes Stores companies last September.

Now filings at the Companies Registration Office show that the operations of 40 companies controlled by the Dunnes Stores group have been merged with an unlimited firm called Dunnes Stores (George’s Street). The retailer’s headquarters is based on South Great George’s Street in Dublin.

Filings also show that Dunnes Stores (George’s Street) had €47.5m in assets prior to the merger process, and €25m of liabilities.

The 40 firms have been merged with Dunnes Stores (George’s Street) “by absorption” in a move approved last week.

The assets and liabilities of the individual firms have now become the assets and liabilities of Dunnes Stores (George’s Street).

The swathe of companies that were merged with the principal company entity have also now been dissolved.

The companies included many individual store firms. They also included firms such as Dunnes Nominees, Dunnes Stores Financial Services and Cornelscourt Shopping Centre.